There was one catch…
Ok,
First, I didn’t know how to cook beans. I had, up to that point, only used canned beans from the store, on the rare occasions that I used beans.
So I came to two decisions: #1 I needed to learn how to cook beans, my pioneer mothers knew how and I needed to relearn this skill. #2 I needed to learn to like beans, I needed to try recipes and serve them to my family often enough that they go use to them and eventually like them.
So for about a year now I have been searching and cooking and learning all about beans. We have had our share of crunchy beans for dinner (bleck), my family has been wonderful patient with me (at least Dadzoo has, he is really good at tolerating, with a smile, my mess ups).
I thought I would share what I have learned with everybody. In times of plenty and times of famine knowing how to cook from scratch is an invaluable skill. I can have 1,000 pounds of kidney beans in my basement, but they are worthless to me if I don’t know how to prepare them and serve them. Also, I believe, that a time of crisis is not the time to be learning these skills, we should prepare ourselves, not only in the storing of food but the skills to use them the best way possible. Our families need to be use to eating these foods, a time of famine or emergency is not the time to be teaching a 10 year old to love beans! I have a series of posts I am going to be doing in the coming weeks, with some recipes and some tips I have learned along the way.
First of all I would like to show you all how I cook beans. I do a large batch and freeze the beans for later use. This is really convenient and easy, especially if I am running behind, it takes about 5 minutes to grab a bag of beans and defrost it in some warm water.
I start out with 6 cups beans. I am not picky on what type, (I have used Great Northern, Kidney and Black, in various combinations) Today I picked Great Northern and Kidney. I measured the beans and put it in my crock pot.
I fill the crock pot up to the very tip-top with water (about 12-14 cups)
I add salt, pepper and any other spice, a tiny bit of hot pepper is yummy too. (just a note, I have heard that salt and onions make the beans cook slower, when I do the crock pot method I don’t worry about that, we will be cooking these babies for about 10 hours so it doesn’t really matter.)
A handful of dried onions, fresh work too.
Two cloves of garlic, I just peel and cut them in half (I don’t mince garlic, ever) they cook down into nothing anyway.
Give it all a quick stir
Cover and cook on low over night or up to 12 hours.
This is what it looks like the next morning, all cooked with almost no water left. The beans are perfectly soft without being mushy.
I dump it all into a big colander and rinse it really well (that will help keep the gas down)
I measure 4 cups and put it into Ziploc bags and freeze. It makes about 16 cups of cooked beans.
This bowl was set aside for dinner that night, and the next recipe in the series….Bean Taco Bake…one of my family’s favorite meals.
Oh, I’m so excited to read all your bean ideas! I used to make beans all the time when we were poor college students, but I’ve kind of stopped since then. I need inspiration. I really should get with it again!
Thanks for this. I love the idea of using the crockpot. I’d also love to see your bean taco bake recipe or what other bean recipes you’ve seen.
I have always been a little intimidated by cooking beans. Mostly because I had no idea how it was done. Thanks for the advice!
Somewhere far away, our anceint meso-america ancestors are rolling over in their graves. This is what they lived off of.
Awesome! I’ve honestly never thought of pre-cooking and freezing them. I love to cook beans. I usually soak them overnight before crock-potting them the next day and my problem is I always forget the pre-soak and then feel like it’s too late. Actually pre-cooking them would be a huge help!
I’m excited for all the recipes. Beans is one of the things we do have a whole year of. Like you I’m still trying to find ways that my family will eat them. Oh who am I kidding. Most of my family loves beans. I’m the one who can’t stand them. If we have to live off of them , I might get really really skinny.
*hugs*
Logan and I have been talking about eating more beans this winter. I’m going to start cooking them on the wood burner, and using some of the ham I have canned in them as well. I remember my grandmother always having a pot of pinto beans going on the stove all day. For supper we’d eat them with corn bread. You’d dip the cornbread and soak up all the juice that the beans made. YUMMY! We’ve also talked about eating more rice as well with meals. Thanks for your post.
Peace, Kris
I just recently learned how to make beans too 🙂 They aren’t near as tough as I thought they’d be to make and they’re much yummier than canned. I haven’t frozen any yet though. I should. I always make my rice in huge batches in my rice cooker and freeze them. I guess beans are next 🙂
My mom loves beans so we had them a lot when I was a kid. My husband does not like them so I don’t make them very often. Really, I think he does not like them because his mother was a terrible cook and made everything taste horrible. I think I need to start making more and get him to eat them so he’ll see that they are not all that bad.